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Sengoku Monster Hunter, a review

The mythical culture of Japan is a not a well known setting in
Europe, Greek and Viking mythology makes a clean sweep of the ancient
gods for those of us here… but now arrives Alternative Armies to give us
a new rulebook with this Japan setting and plenty of Sengoku mythical
monsters and warriors.
The book outlines a Japanese medieval
world, were we, the hunters, are hired to hunt monsters to clean haunted
forest or to save the honour of fallen from grace samurais… To bring
about this task we will be able to hire some specialized followers to
help us. Will you dare to fight against the monsters and take up this
challenge?
The game is suitable for solo wargamers, or groups of
hunters where each player will deploy his hunter and followers, with the
monsters moving following an easy ‘silent player’ or A.I system.
Our
hunter will is described by a profile with these stats: Actions, Move,
Combat, Shooting, Wounds and Resolve; with a value between 3 to 6. Each
activation will let us to make as much actions as we have in our Action
stat, walking so many centimetres as show the Move stat. The combat,
either melee or ranged shot, will be resolved rolling as much D6 as our
Combat and Shooting stats put out. Looking for 4+ in each one. Moreover,
we must equip our hunter with various typical Japanese weapons like the
tanto, naginata or ninjato, and armours.
The hunter will be long
to a hunters guild, or will be a warrior monk or a Lone Warrior what
will give him special rules and obligations, improving his attack or
requiring of the payment of taxes to maintain the belong to the guild.
Guilds are central to the hunter.
The enemies are represented by
‘markers’, who move in uncovered until they are in the line of view of
the hunter or followers. At this moment the monster is reveal and
deployed and it will follow the Monster animal table as followed by him
the hunter. Alternative Armies has Sengoku Tokens which are also coins
and bases for this use.
The hunt will be developed in a squared
60cm or 80cm for 15mm scale, which represent the lowlands, the hills or
the mountains, with at least 4 markers in the lowlands, and 8 markers on
the mountains. As much markers, as more experience points are earned,
so the hunter wins more awards. The hunt can get bigger!
With all
the awarded points, the hunter can improve his skills, the quality of
their follower, and more things… because this wargame is outlined as a
campaign, where the hunter will be improving his skills to hunt bigger
and dangerous monsters. You can take your hunter on a journey of
experience.
The book has more than twenty creatures to make life
impossible to our hunter, with their stats and special rules, between
Oni, goblins, skeletons and the terrible Kasa Obake…..
From my
point of view, the rulebook is a great choice for the solo wargamers who
are looking for a ruleset to play little encounters with no more than
5-10 miniatures per side, with a hero bearing all the weight of the
scene. The book is suitable for the Japanese mythology neophyte, because
avoids a lot of Japanese terminology, using European terms for the
weapons and armours. Besides, the monster stats are suitable for other
mythological monsters, so the rules are suitable for the Greek or Viking
mythology, or other settings like a Fantasy game where a hunter is
hunting witches in the middle of the 16 century. From my point of view
the metagame about the campaign is very motivating, and inclusive, with
the player having to save experience points to pay the food for his
followers, or having to quit from the Hunter Guild because he can’t pay
the taxes…
To me as a Spanish native speaker the downside is that
the rulebook sometimes a little dense in the reading, with some points
not too clear to me, or with the information not all in the same part of
the book, like, for example the number of markers for each scenario.
But I was helped and I got the answers. The thematic style of the book
could not be for every wargamer, so these wargamers will miss out on
this great and easy wargame. So I say give it a chance and you can be
helped if you ask Alternative Armies.
In summary Sengoku Monster
Hunter is a must have for all this solo wargamers, who wants to go out
with the little guys to hunt some bad demons and creatures from the dark
corners….